Splitting Hairs in Texas; Politics; Weather May Be a Factor in a Republican Primary with Similar Candidates

Will, George F, St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

The men are so near to each other in all their convictions and
theories of life that nothing is left to them but personal
competition for the doing of the thing that is to be done. It is the
same in religion. The apostle of Christianity and the infidel can
meet without a chance of a quarrel; but it is never safe to bring
together two men who differ about a saint or a surplice.

- Anthony Trollope, "Phineas Redux"

HOUSTON - The average high temperature in Texas on July 31 is 94
degrees, which might matter in the selection of this state's next
U.S. senator. Or perhaps the crucial fact will be a residue of
Reconstruction.

With Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison having decided not to seek a
fourth full term, a May 29 primary winnowed a field of nine
competitors for the Republican nomination - and, effectively, for
the seat from this crimson state - to two men who are very near to
each other in all their convictions and theories of life.

David Dewhurst, 66, got rich in the oil and gas business, which
is neither a nest of liberals nor resented by Texans, and for nine
years he has been lieutenant governor, which in Texas is an
approximation of Caesar. He says that during Reconstruction the
federal government imposed carpetbagger governors, so in 1876 Texans
wrote a constitution that made their governor the nation's weakest
and made a muscular lieutenant governor. He appoints all chairmen
and members of the state Senate committees, who serve at his
pleasure; he schedules all legislation; no senator can speak without
his recognition.

The Ted Cruz campaign says dependency explains why 18 of 19 state
Senate Republicans recently signed a letter in support of Dewhurst,
who must worry that Tea Partyers and other conservatives look
askance at persons who play too well with others. Cruz has degrees
from Princeton and Harvard Law School. Dewhurst, who played
basketball for the University of Arizona, is in the Texas Rodeo
Cowboy Hall of Fame. Advantage Dewhurst.

Each candidate has endorsements from national conservative
luminaries. Cruz, however, has the cachet of someone fluent in the
vocabulary of intellectual and constitutional conservatism, and has
none of the ideological impurities that result from leading
legislative coalitions. Advantage Cruz.

On 99 percent of U. …

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